Elm Court

General Information

Elm Court is a new 7 unit town home development located at 1271 – 1285 Elm Street in Concord, MA. Two 2 bedroom affordable units are available, by lottery, to eligible first time homebuyers.

Lottery Applicant Criteria:

• Must be a first time homebuyer defined has not having owned residential property for three years (exception for displaced homeowners).

• Must not exceed the following maximum allowable income for your household size.

• All applicants’ allowable assets shall not exceed $50,000. Full value or a portion of retirement assets are counted towards the asset limit. While employed only the amounts the applicant can withdraw are counted less the early withdrawal assessed penalties. Complete Income and Asset Guidelines will be provided if you have an opportunity to purchase, at the Public Information meeting, upon request or you can view online at www.mcohousingservices.com.

Mortgage Guidelines:
There are specific mortgage guidelines that must be met. They are:

• The loan must have a fixed interest rate through the full term of the mortgage.
• The loan must have a current fair market interest rate. (No more the 2 percentage points above the current MassHousing Rate.)
• The buyer must provide a down payment of at least 3%, 1.5% of which must come from the buyer’s own funds.
• The loan can have no more than 2 points.
• The buyer may not pay more than 38% of their monthly income for housing costs.

Local Preference Criteria:
You must meet at least one of the following to be eligible for Local Preference.

• Current Concord Resident
• Employed by the Town of Concord
• Current employees and student of public and regional school district serving the Town of Concord

Proof of local residency will be verified if you have the opportunity to purchase.

Housing Preferences
Yes. One of the two units is for applicants who meet at least one of the above Local Preference Criteria.

Unit preference for the two bedroom units will be given to households which require two bedrooms, based on household size. Second preference is to households which require one bedroom, based on household size.

Deed Rider
YES. Deed restrictions are used to ensure the units are affordable for future buyers and are attached to the property in perpetuity. If you choose to sell your unit, there is a limit on the resale price. The maximum resale price is determined using a Resale Price Multiplier, a figure calculated by taking the initial sales price and dividing it by the area median income. For example, the initial 2 bedroom affordable town home unit price is $160,000 and the current area median income is $82,400, the Resale Price Multiplier would be $160,000/$82,400 = 1.94.

Upon resale, the Resale Price Multiplier is multiplied by the updated area median income number to determine the maximum resale price. For example, if the original buyer decides to sell the unit in 5 years and (we assume) the then current area median income has increased to $87,000 the resale price would be determined as follows: $87,000 x 1.94 = $168,780.

In addition, the Monitoring Agent may receive a resale fee than can be added to the maximum resale price. For example, assume the resale fee is 2.5% of the set new purchase price ($168,780 x 2.5% = $4,220). The total resale price would be $173,000.

Minority Preference
A preliminary lottery will be held if the percentage of minority applicants in the Local Preference Pool is less than 20.7%, as determined by recent Census data in the Boston area. This lottery will be comprised of all minority applicants who did not qualify for the local pool. Applicants will be ranked in order of the drawing. The Local Pool will be adjusted by adding the required number of applicants, in rank order, to achieve the appropriate minority representation in the Local Pool.

Minority households are identified in accordance with the regulatory classifications established by HUD.